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Milton's supervisor ran on ethics platform, now he may be skirting town's code

Ostrander seeking to screen candidates for panel

Wendy Liberatore| on
March 5, 2018

The Town of Milton website directs candidates for the Ethics Board to contact Supervisor Scott Ostrander.

The Town of Milton website directs candidates for the Ethics Board to contact Supervisor Scott Ostrander.

Photo: Townofmiltonny.org

Photo: Townofmiltonny.org

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The Town of Milton website directs candidates for the Ethics Board to contact Supervisor Scott Ostrander.

The Town of Milton website directs candidates for the Ethics Board to contact Supervisor Scott Ostrander.

Photo: Townofmiltonny.org

Milton's supervisor ran on ethics platform, now he may be skirting town's code

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MILTON - Town Supervisor Scott Ostrander, who ran on a campaign of ethics, is now violating the town's ethics law by asking prospective new Board of Ethics members to apply through him.

Under the town code, candidates seeking an ethics board appointment must agree to "submit a typed application/resume for a seat on the Town of Milton Ethics Board in a sealed envelope to the Town of Milton marked 'Attention: Ethics Board.' "

But on the homepage of the town website, Ostrander is asking candidates to submit their resumes to him. The ethics board needs two new members because Chair Rob Keihm and board member John Bory quit last week after Ostrander's successful push to have his pick placed on the five-member panel.

Keihm and Bory said they lost faith and trust in town leadership after it called three votes in order to appoint Brenda Baird to ethics board. Ethics board members opposed her appointment because she worked on town councilman John Frolish's campaign and also served as an election commissioner for him at polling places. She said during her ethics board interview that Ostrander personally invited her to apply for a spot on the committee, a charge Ostrander denies.

These facts, the ethics board said, disqualify Baird. But the Town Board brought up the vote on her three separate times until Ostrander had the votes needed to secure her appointment last week.

Keihm is hoping that Ostrander's latest move to screen candidates for the Ethics Board is an oversight.

"But if it is intentional, it just goes to show where the priority on ethics is with the Town Supervisor and the reason I resigned from the ethics board," Keihm said. "He should know and understand the Code of Ethics above anyone else since he ran on a platform of ensuring 'Milton Officials are held to the highest ethical standards to protect the public trust.' "

Town councilwoman Barbara Kerr echoed Keihm by saying it's the supervisor's and the town board's job to know the law.

"We have to know our town code and laws," said Kerr, who was the only Town Board member to vote against Baird. "We have to follow them. If we are unsure of a code, we have to look it up. It's our responsibility."

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Ostrander ran on an ethics platform. During campaign season, he capitalizing on a Board of Ethics decision against Kerr who was his political rival in the primary and then in the general election. She was found to be violating town ethics law by being a member of the Saratoga County Women's Republican Club. Shannon Doherty lodged the complaint against Kerr. After Ostrander won, Doherty was named the town supervisor's private secretary.

Soon after, long-time planning board member Jim Staulters, who publicly did not support Ostrander's candidacy for supervisor, was ousted from the town planning board.

Ostrander insists he had nothing to do with Doherty's job or Staulters' removal because he had yet to be sworn in as supervisor when those actions took place.